"Seeing all things as
naked, clear and free from obscurations, there is nothing to
attain or realise. The nature of phenomena appears
naturally and is naturally present in time-transcending
awareness. Everything is naturally perfect just as it
is. All phenomena appear in their uniqueness as part of the
continually changing pattern. These patterns are vibrant
with meaning and significance at every moment; yet there is no
significance to attach to such meanings beyond the moment in
which they present themselves.

This is the dance of the five elements in which matter is a
symbol of energy and energy a symbol of emptiness. We are a
symbol of our own enlightenment. With no effort or practice
whatsoever, liberation or enlightenment is already here.

The everyday practice of dzogchen is just everyday life
itself. Since the undeveloped state does not exist, there
is no need to behave in any special way or attempt to attain
anything above and beyond what you actually are. There
should be no feeling of striving to reach some 'amazing goal' or
"advanced state."

"Buddha sat in serene
and humble dignity on the ground, with the sky above him and
around him, as if to show us that in meditation you sit with
open, skylike attitude of mind, yet remain present, earthed and
grounded.
The sky is our absolute nature, which has no barriers and is
boundless, and the ground is our reality, our relative, ordinary
condition.
The posture we take when we meditate signifies that we are
linking absolute and relative, sky and ground, heaven and earth,
like two wings of a bird, integrating the skylike, deathless
nature of mind and the ground of our transient, mortal
nature."

~Sogyal Rinpoche

From the book, "Glimpse After Glimpse," published by
Harper Collins.posted to Daily
Dharma by anipachen

As I thought
about the theme for this weekend [i.e., the TAT Spring Gathering]
-- "Beyond Mind, Beyond Death" -- I took some notes
that might serve as a link between the theme and what I plan to
talk about this evening.

Some say the
mind perceives an external objective universe, others say the
mind projects the universe. Either way, the mind is necessary for
experience. No mind, no experience. Death is widely perceived as
being primarily of the body. Most people believe there is an
aspect of the mind that survives death-call it spirit or
soul-that will continue to have experiences without a body. But
what if that's not true? What if death is the end of all
experience? What's beyond experience? From what non-experience
does experience spring?

After fooling
around with spiritual matters for some 37 years, a conclusive
experience occurred last August that finally settled things. My
questions vanished and the spiritual search came to an end.
During those 37 years I read a lot of books and turned over a lot
of rocks, but three teachers stand out.

I met Richard
Rose 15 years ago and from then on his teachings became the
foundation of my spiritual search. About ten years ago I was
blown away by Nisargadatta's book, I Am That, and it
became my "bible." Five years ago I started reading
Douglas Harding and dabbling with his experiments, then last year
attended a workshop with him in England. On the plane ride home
from that workshop the experience occurred. Only it was not an
experience. It was a non-experience experience. There was
no one there to have an experience.

So if I wasn't
there how come I have memories of it and can talk about it? I
don't know. It's just one more aspect of the mystery. And it's
all mystery. Anything that's not mystery is misunderstood. As
soon as I think I know anything, I've strayed into error.

The months since
then have felt like a period of assimilation, integration,
deepening-maybe that never stops. I've done a lot of writing and
thinking about it, trying to find ways to make it understandable
to my own mind and of talking about it semi-coherently to others.

I pretty much
started from scratch on this. For the first few days afterwards I
literally couldn't put two words together on the subject. The
experience does not bring with it the capacity to communicate.
That has to be worked out afterwards, which is what I seem to be
doing now. So tonight I thought I'd quickly go over some of the
things I've been thinking about these last six or eight months,
then open it up for questions.

The experience
itself, in my case, occurred as a series of three-part episodes
over several hours and was at times punctuated by almost
unbearable joy and unworthiness, accompanied by considerable
weeping. (Fortunately, no one sat nearby.) But these aspects are
not important and are unique to the individual. What is realized,
however, is universal.

So what is
realized? The first question a person is likely to ask-or should
ask-of someone who claims to have had a spiritual realization is
"What did you realize?" I've been working on my short
answer. Here's the current version:

In August
2004 something happened that corrected a basic mistake in
perception I'd lived with all my life. Prior to this occurrence I
thought I was an individual consciousness experiencing an
infinitely large, infinitely old, external universe of real
objects. What I discovered, however, is that the consciousness I
mistakenly perceived as belonging to an individual (Me), is in
actuality God consciousness, the One consciousness, and that Me,
the universe and everything in it are vague, ephemeral
thought-forms appearing in and out of emptiness in a timeless,
spaceless Now.

It was a
shattering revelation, but at the same time so obvious and
self-evident I realized I'd known all along. I became un-fooled.
A case of mistaken identity -- very close to home -- was
resolved. There is only God consciousness. Here, where I
am, there is consciousness. Therefore, I am That.